Park Partnerships

The Oral History Project is only one of UAB’s collaborations with Red Mountain Park, which will open its first phase in 2012. Here are a few examples of how UAB faculty, students, and alumni are using Red Mountain as a laboratory for hands-on teaching and research and contributing to the park’s creation:

Sarah Parcak, Ph.D., director of the Laboratory for Global Health Observation and an archaeologist, has been researching underground structures and artifacts. She is also surveying the park with assistance from her students at UAB.

Andrew Coleman, a Ph.D. candidate in biology, launched a herpetology survey to gauge the park’s reptile and amphibian populations.

Coach Blake Boldon and the UAB women’s cross-country track team train on the park’s trails; they also have coordinated an effort to build additional trails on the property.

History professor Colin Davis, Ph.D., has shed light on labor history and serves on the park’s historical committee. (Ellen Davis, a graduate student in the Department of History, spent a year documenting the past of the current park land.)

Thomas Jackson, Ph.D., director of research engineering in the School of Engineering, coordinates park-focused marketing and engineering projects involving undergraduate and graduate students.

Former UAB president Scotty McCallum, D.M.D., M.D., has been a commissioner on the Red Mountain Park board since its inception. As chair of the board’s personnel committee, he has been influential in selecting park staff.

Tennant McWilliams, Ph.D., former dean of the UAB School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, was responsible for putting in motion many of the UAB-Red Mountain Park connections, including collaborations involving the history and engineering departments, as well as the cross-country team.

Nick Timkovich (system analyst at UAB’s University Computer Center) and Pat Higginbottom (assistant director at Lister Hill Library) are both officers of the Friends of Red Mountain Park, the volunteer arm of the park. They lead monthly public hikes, coordinate trail working days, host publicity events, and give community presentations to a variety of organizations.

Retired UAB development office employee Betty Bock volunteers in the area of grant research.